council of toulouse – Madison Catholic Herald

To the editor:

In his letter responding about the use of Latin in liturgical worship (Catholic Herald, March 17), Tom Roberts wrote, “The Council of Toulouse in 1229 declared, ‘We prohibit also that the laity should be permitted to have the books of the old and new testament’; they were in Latin.”

More information is required lest false conclusions be drawn about the Church. The Council of Toulouse was a local council, held by a local church. It was not an Ecumenical Council, for the whole Church.

It addressed the problem of Albigensian heretics (aka Cathars), very active in Toulouse, who mistranslated the Latin Scriptures to support their pernicious heresies. When the Albigensianism problem was resolved, the limited edict for that local church was no longer needed.

On March 17, 2016

Tom Roberts

If Latin Mass is restored, all Catholics should learn Latin

To the editor:

Fr. John Zuhlsdorf’s column, “Latin is language for Church teaching, worship” (Catholic Herald, March 3), could be taken at its word. We have Latin. He states that Judaism has Hebrew.

When the Torah is read in Hebrew, the congregation understands it. When a child becomes Bar or Bat Mitzvah, he or she reads from the Torah and presents a short essay.